Global Consensus and a Unifying Vision: A 21st Century Solution to Materialism, Individualism, and Selfishness

I read a book a few years ago called The Story of B by Daniel Quinn. It emphasized the fact that vision is far more important that any particular theory, policy prescription, or program. It made me think--we could talk at length using development jargon, but unless we have some unifying vision, then all programming is really just window dressing. For the 21st century, the critical issue is just that—a lack of unifying vision or mythology.

This is especially true in relation to our existence on this planet. Historically, religion has played a social role by promoting values and norms that enable societies to function without tearing apart internally. Whether we are talking about a village shaman or the Pope, one function of religion is to provide moral instruction. Over the last century, however, one dominant vision has taken hold—a cancerous, myopic sense of materialism and selfishness. We even have a school of thought where greed is actually good. Traditionally, the role of religion was to balance out societies by recapitalizing social capital that was depleted by the drives of self-interest. Yet we have shifted away from this, towards a doctrine of individualism and materialism.

So what does the formation of this unifying vision require us to do? First of all, it asks us to be tolerant. It requires us to possess a sense of shared belonging to the same tribe as well as an understanding that religions are cultural processes. They are much like languages—different tribes and regions developed different languages, but the information being communicated was universal.

Therefore, to create global consensus and tackle the environmental, ecological, and political crises facing humanity, we need to move beyond literal understandings of ancient text and begin to forge a unifying vision based on the meaning rather than the narrative.